Time Will Reveal

By Kevin Alberto Sabio

"If you had the power to change history...would you?

It is the year 2092, and the Earth has fought and lost a brutal civil war with her space colonies, fighting for their autonomy.  With the dissolution of many of the national governments, the pockets of lawlessness are now being enforced by the Autonomous Colonial Peacekeeper Forces.  Auset alkebulan, a veteran of the Autonomy Wars, is among their ranks, and hates every minute of it.  After a peacekeeping mission gone bad, she is courtmartialed, and imprisoned.

While in the brig, a government official approaches Auset with a mission; one that could free her from her imprisonment.  A colonial associate of hers, Kush Carthage, is charged with murder, and the theft of a powerful goverment device...and she is charged with goinjg after him.  She agrees, and when she finally tracks Kush down, she finds out things are A LOT more complicated than she initially realizes.

Will Auset help Kush with his mission to alter all of history....or, will she fulfill the obligations of her original mission?  Only time will reveal..."

• Language: English
• Publisher: Kevin Alberto Sabio
• Release date: Mar 12, 2020
• ISBN: 9781393002420

Kevin Alberto Sabio

KEVIN ALBERTO SABIO is an author and activist, born and raised in Brooklyn, NY.  He is also known as a screenwriter, online journalist, and advocate for the cinematic and literary arts.  He has written several fiction and nonfiction book titles.

Book preview

PROLOGUE

Kush Carthage's chocolate form enters into his apartment, weary from holding his history classes at John Henrik Clarke University.  Many of his students, not to mention his colleagues, were feeling quite antsy about the recent developments between the Stellar Colonies, and the United Nations of Earth.  Ever since the decision had been made to officially venture out into outer space, and to colonize her, the human race has been able to expand its reach beyond their terrestrial borders.  Of course, with human expansion into outer space, it becomes accompanied by human nature.  Over the years, the colonies have become quite lucrative, and also self-sufficient.  No longer was it necessary for terrain-bound humans to supply goods and supplies to those out in space; now in 2086, they were capable of creating and manufacturing their own.  They were able to create whole industries, as well as a life in outer space.  They were not only laborers and technicians, but soon families were able to relocate there, if not be indigenously procreated.  Soon afterward, the lunar and orbital colonies grew to become more and more self sustaining, growing more independent by the day, much to the ire of the planetary governments that had initially created them.  They tried to initiate more laws, and began the taxation of their forward progress, trying to maintain their control over them. 

With their increased self-sufficiency, they began to resist more and more; they mined moons and asteroids to create raw building materials...mined asteroids for their water...and harvested solar energy to power their systems.  The most recent rankle came in the form of self determination, by naming their own colonies; a slap in the face to the terrestrial powers of Earth.  Tao Sino Autonomous initiated the trend, with Nippon Ichiwa Autonomous following afterward.  Even Kush's own home colony, Nkrumah Autonomous, had entered into the field, also claiming their own independence.  Caribana Autonomous, Atzlan Autonomous, Boríquen Autonomous, and Kolkata Autonomous had recently entered the fray, and they collectively formed the Autonomous Colonial Representative Council as a way for them to collectively negotiate from a position of power.  That proved to be the last straw for many of the terrestrial governments, as many were now calling that an act of war.  The various terrestrial governments were now calling for an armed occupation to bring the colonies back in line.  This caused a lot of apprehension to flow throughout the colonies, as they were deciding how to plot their next move.  They didn't have a standing army, barely a functional police force; how would they be able to defend themselves from an invading force, with advanced weaponry...?  2086 was shaping up to be a very interesting year...

Kush tried to do his part to help assuage the fears of his students, and fellow colonists.  He focused a lot of his recent lessons on the many revolutions that took place on Earth; how anti-colonial resistance forces were able to stand up against an advanced army, and be victorious.  He focused on many different groups, even within his people's own history; the anti-colonial movements in Africa, the Maroons of the Americas, The Haitian Revolution, ZANU, ANC, MLSTP, the Mau-Mau Rebellion, and so many others.  There was a historical precedent that had been set that let them all know that, the task of obtaining their freedom wasn't as impossible and insurmountable as they might have been led to believe.  Kush wholeheartedly believed in their independence from the terrestrial powers, being allowed to determine their own destiny; free from the imperial control and influence of others, to be able to determine their own future.  In his opinion, the colonies were willing to coexist with the terrestrial powers as equals; it was the greed and arrogance of the Terrans that was building and channeling all of this animosity and friction.

Kush just sighs, weary of the whole situation.  He clicks on his holo-television set, taking a seat on his sofa.  The local broadcaster was airing a recent episode of some silly celebrity show, when they become interrupted by the local news anchor.  ...We interrupt this program for breaking news from the floor of the United Nations of Earth..., the anchor says.  Kush raises his eyebrow, now sitting up.

...Members from the Autonomous Colonial Representative Council have just exited chambers with the various leaders of the world.  A trade agreement could not be reached, and negotiations have been broken off completely.  The Terrestrial governments have chosen to not recognize the elected representatives of the Autonomous Colonial leadership, and are planning on increasing their security presence on their lunar and orbital colonies, to bring them back under their territorial control.  Members of the ACRC, in return, have given a vote of 'no confidence' to the UNE Governing Council, and will be returning into space.  Though reports are unconfirmed at this time, rumor has it that they are in the early stages of forming a unified 'Colonial Militia' to defend themselves from possible military aggression from the Imperial Terrestrial governments....

Kush presses the mute button, taking in all that was just reported.  He was a bit shocked by the news, but not wholly surprised.  History had a nasty habit of repeating itself, and this situation was no different.  The imperial interests of the terrestrial governments were no different that those of the imperial powers of the past; some of them were just repeating the same trends from their distant, and not so distant, imperialist pasts.  The terrestrial powers were wrong in this instance, and weren't going to back down from this issue.  This whole issue was making his mind flash back to some of his recent lessons that he'd been presenting to his students; the American and French Revolutions in particular.  It also made him focus his mind on Portuguese-controlled Lusophone Africa, and how they rose up, and resisted against their own colonial oppressor through movement such as PAIGC, FRELIMO, and the MPLA.  If the orbital and lunar colonies were going to gain their independence, it was most likely going to be done through warfare; they were beyond the point of negotiating for their freedom.

Kush's audio/visual communicator goes off, and he pulls it out of his pocket.  He sees his younger sister Abyssinia's face and number pop up, and a smirk registers on his chocolate face.  He flips open his AVC, and answers it.  Hey Abby..., he replies, greeting her ebony face, ...How are you, sis?.

Where are you?  Were you watching the news...?

...Here at home, and yes.

This is crazy!

I know..., he wearily sighs, ...But, to be expected.

"You should have been a part of the delegation, Kush..."

...I'm an academic, not a politician, Abby.

But, your knowledge of history might have prevented this.

"...I doubt it.  Imperial greed is never easy to dissuade."

What are we going to do?

"...What can we do?  They've left us no choice..."

Do you think that it's possible?  It's one thing to talk tough about going to war...

...We've made a lot of advancements since being out here.  If we're unified, and truly believe in our cause, then I think that it's possible.

Well, they've certainly pissed off a lot of people.  They're restricting our flight paths, and creating no-fly zones in a lot of sectors...

...Being a pilot isn't as fun as it used to be, is it?

Not at all!

How's Axum...?, Kush asks, mentioning their brother, and her twin, "Have you talked to him, lately?  How's he taking all of this...?"

...Haven't been able to reach him, yet.  His AVC keeps going to message mode...

Hmmm...that's not good.

You're right, but I'm not worried.  I haven't felt anything off today, that would cause me to worry about him...

...You think that it has anything to do with this rumored Colonial Militia that they were just talking about...?

Considering that he's a technician, I wouldn't doubt it.  He's been acting kinda Secret Squirrel lately...

Oh...?

...Yeah.  They've been servicing a lot of freighters lately...not to mention, R&D has been off limits the last few cycles...

This causes Kush to pause.  That sounded like the colonial leadership had been doing some clandestine war planning all along, not expecting to gain their autonomy through civil